DIY publishing

Step Two

Yesterday, I was talking about using Calibre to convert documents into the appropriate formats (ePub, Mobi, etc.) for eReaders. The conversion process was easy to figure out and is astonishingly simple. The only drawback is that there are some formatting glitches that occur.

Occasionally, you lose your paragraphs. They get merged together or broken into two ‘graphs at odd places. All those nifty Microsoft Word features like “smart quotes” and em dashes don’t translate well. (You can turn that stuff off in Word, but if you forgot to do it before you converted in Calibre, you’ll have a mess.) In addition, images don’t always end up where you intended.

There is, almost certainly, software you can buy that will allow you to edit an ePub or a Mobi file. There may even be some freeware that will let you do it. Tuesday’s Tip, however, is my discovery over the weekend that an ePub file is really just a bunch of HTML files and associated style sheets and image files all zipped up together into one file with the ePub extension.

If you have any kind of zip software and some knowledge of HTML, you can easily fix any problems with your ePub file. (Note: I said “easily,” not “quickly.” It can take some time.)

The first thing to do is convert the document using Calibre. Then, locate the resulting ePub file on your hard drive. At this point, I recommend storing a copy of that file in some other location until you’ve finished tinkering. It’s always good to be able to go back to where you started if/when you get hopelessly stuck.

Once you’ve made the backup copy–(Seriously. I mean it. You can never have too many backups.)–right-click on it and open it with your zip software (WinZip, 7Zip, jZip, IZArc–whatever your chosen utility is).

You should see a list of files–several of which have the extension .html. These are now editable in any text editor. (I think I mentioned, previously, that I like Notepad++.)

Make your changes (this is where you need that working knowledge of HTML) and check them by viewing each file in your browser.

When you are finished tinkering, select all the files (make sure you get all of them — the html files, the image files, the css files, the opf files and anything else that you unzipped from the ePub file) and use your zip software to re-create the archive.

Rename the new archive to the original name including the ePub extension.

You should now be able to view it on Calibre’s eBook viewer or on your ePub-compatible eReader.

If you’re trying to edit a MOBI file, it seems the simplest thing to do is convert it to ePub, edit, and then convert it back.

Now, one caveat to all of this is I haven’t yet figured out how DRM (Digital Rights Management) protected files work. I’m talking here about unprotected files. If you’re looking for info on DRM, you’ll either have to Google for yourself or wait until I’ve climbed that bit of the learning curve.

Gate crashing

“No fate but what we make for ourselves.”*

Thanks to the Internet and to technology, we are getting closer and closer to those words being true. Where once upon a time it was extremely difficult to get your work–by which I mean, for the most part, your art–out where people could see it, it is becoming easier and easier. The gatekeepers have less power. If you are willing to take the chance and invest a little sweat equity, you can bypass them.

It’s not always a good idea. Perceptions change more slowly than technology, and the seal of approval provided by being selected by a reputable publishing house or signed by an A-list agent still has value. I’m not advocating “going rogue” entirely.

What I am saying is that the delivery channels are not as narrowly held as they once were. If you think you have something to offer, there are ways to offer it without waiting for the over-worked and over-solicited gatekeeper to realize its value and pluck you out of obscurity.

I’ve been considering self-publishing for some time, and this Monday’s Miracle is that I have made some significant progress in that direction. Like the builders of the Six Million Dollar Man, I “have the technology.”

And I’m a little closer to making it work now that I’ve figured out how to turn a standard word processed bit of writing into something that can be delivered in the formats used by the all the major eReaders.

If you want to to the same, you can check out Calibre–a terrific free software for eBook management. It’s not all I’m going to need. There are some limitations to its conversion processes, but I’ve solved one of the major difficulties. I’ll be talking about that tomorrow in Tuesday’s Tips.

Meanwhile, this is a big step forward in what is shaping up to be a major project. The goal is to take much of my writing and make it available for purchase and download at the bookstore on this website. Instead of spending my energy trying to attract the attention of literary managers, agents and publishers’ assistants, I can spend it on making the work as good as I can and making it available as quickly as I can.

There are many, many hurdles to overcome before I get there–but getting past the gatekeeper isn’t going to be one of them!

* James Cameron, Terminator 2: Judgment Day

Act “As If”

Fake it ’til you make it

We’ve all heard that, right? The idea is that you pretend to a confidence you don’t actually have so that the pretense will provide access to real success and, thus, in some sort of cosmic feedback loop, to real confidence.

There are variations on this, unrelated to confidence, specifically. Proponents of the Law of Attraction encourage us to “act as if” we already have the things we want in order to draw more of them to us. Actors use a form of this called “working from the outside in,” on the theory that behavior influences emotion. Mothers use it, primarily, I think, to reassure children. (I was well into adulthood before I realized my mother was not necessarily as blasé about spiders and snakes and rodents as she pretended to be when I was young.)

All of those variations are fascinating to me and probably worth posts of their own, but today, I want to talk about haircuts.

(Don’t get whiplash from that double-take, now, as your mind attempts to grapple with the apparent change of subject. You heard me correctly. Haircuts.)

Inadvertently, I have conducted my own experiment in acting “as if.”

You see, it’s this way. I’ve been cutting my husband’s hair for a few months now. We moved down here to Florida, and he can’t find a barber he likes. Plus, we bought a house of that precarious architectural style known as a “fixer-upper,” so, you know — cash flow. If I cut his hair, there are a few more dollars for other things. Like spackle. And plumbers.

When we began this, I had never before cut anyone’s hair. Successfully, I mean. I frequently, in desperation and to avoid looking like a sheepdog, cut my own bangs. (It doesn’t usually work out well. Let’s not dwell on it.) Other than that, I’ve not come near anyone’s head with sharp implements.

But how hard could it be?

Clippers. Clippers are the solution. They sell them in the drugstore. They expect that people will make use of them, and you don’t hear about a lot of tragic haircutting accidents, so. . . . We decided to try it.

The MotH* was encouraging and full of helpful tips. (Me having sharp objects in my hand never deters him from telling me what to do. He is either very brave or very dumb. On any given day, my interpretation see-saws from one end of that spectrum to the other.) I watched YouTube videos about how to cut men’s hair with clippers. It didn’t go so badly. That was haircut # 1.

Haircut #2 was a whole different story. Several weeks had passed. I had forgotten most of what I learned in those videos. I didn’t re-watch them before attempting haircut #2. I was tentative and nervous and vocal about it. “Uh-oh” was a phrase that came all too frequently out of my mouth. The MotH got nervous. . .and testy. And he did not approve of his haircut after the first pass at it.

We took a break to re-think and re-group — and for me to re-watch my videos. A second pass, later that afternoon, righted most of the earlier–um–infelicities of the haircut. No lives were lost, although I could tell that the MotH’s appreciation of my help in barbering had diminished somewhat.

Yesterday, it was time for haircut #3. I approached it with anxiety. After all, I have had zero haircut’s worth of additional experience since the last time I did this. But I also made an internal resolution to pretend that it was going well even if I, myself, had doubts.

We set up the stool in the garage. I plugged in the clippers, spritzed the hair, and–like the actor I have sometimes been–proceeded to work from the outside in. I made sure that my physical motions were deliberate rather than hesitant. I handled the clippers and scissors with assurance and passed them over his head with conviction. I didn’t say, “Uh-oh,” in spite of thinking it more than once. When I was finished, I said, “I think that looks pretty good!” in a pleased, if slightly surprised, tone.

And here’s the fascinating thing. The haircut isn’t that much better than the previous one. In fact, objectively, I might say it is slightly worse than the revised version of the afternoon’s retake of haircut #2. (Only slightly. I wouldn’t send him out looking like he has been badly scalped!) It’s an okay haircut. No Rodeo Drive styling. Ordinary. Okay.

But he is much happier with it.

Fake it ’til you make it. Sometimes, if you fake it well enough, they won’t realize you haven’t totally made it.

And keep watching those hair cutting videos.

* MotH = Man of the House

That’s me!

Branding, Intellectual Property and Google Alerts

This Tuesday’s Tip is about Google Alerts. Get one, use it, pay attention to it.

What is a Google Alert?

It’s a way to let Google do some of the work of keeping you updated and informed.

You can set up a query for anything, and Google will email you a summary of links of instances where your search terms appear on the web. On an ongoing basis.

Say you are fascinated by–I don’t know–koala bears. You can set up a Google Alert for the term “koala bear” and get a daily, weekly, or real-time email of websites where that term appears. You can choose to be informed about every website or only news stories, blog mentions, videos, or books. You can choose to let Google determine the best matches and email you only those, or you can opt for all results.

As an artist, this can work for you in three ways.

The first, perhaps, is obvious. Research!

Writing about koala bears? Let Google do some of the grunt work, and have new info delivered to your inbox daily. Of course, you will still need the library and reference books, but a Google Alert can save you time by letting you know there’s a new book being published next week. You can be the first to request it on Inter-Library Loan. It’s like your own personal research assistant for content.

It can help with market research also. If you’re trying to put together a book proposal for a non-fiction work–the definitive treatise on koala bears–you’re going to need to include research on the competition. How many books about koala bears are there anyway? Maybe you should write about apple cider instead.

The second reason has to do with branding. Whether you are doing business under a company name or your own, it’s probably a good idea to know how else that name is being used. In my case, it turns out there are quite a few other Elaine Smiths out there. (I’d have bet on the Smiths, but the Elaines were more surprising. I don’t meet too many Elaines–Seinfeld and The Graduate notwithstanding.)

Quite a few of the links in the Google Alert I have on my name are one-offs.

Obituaries head that list, of course. Surprisingly, they are often encouraging. In fact, I hope I do as well as the Elaine Robb Smith who passed away in 2009 and was described thusly: “”Even into her 90s, Elaine Smith could do a smooth time step, tapping her way down the hall of her adult-care facility using her walker.”

There are, however, a small circle of us who make recurring web appearances. There is the Elaine Smith who is a member of the Scottish Parliament. There is the Elaine Smith who designs outdoor pillows. There is the Elaine Smith, who, sadly, recently also passed away, who founded Therapy Dogs International. There is Elaine Smith, House Member of the Idaho State Legislature.

I don’t know if I have anything in common with these ladies other than our name, but it’s kind of fun to see them surface time after time in news stories and to follow their careers at this anonymous distance. (I did once write to Representative Smith of Idaho, because she was courageously standing up for women’s rights, and I thought I would just say thanks.) Fortunately, they all seem to be eminently respectable, hard-working, contributing members of society. I’m not sure what I would have done if a porn queen popped up. Fortunately, I’ve never had to decide–but it would have been a branding issue, for sure.

Almost certainly, these women know nothing about me (unless they have their own Google Alerts), but most days, I see them mentioned in my inbox.

And that brings me to the third, and possibly most important, reason to have a Google Alert on your name.

The concept of intellectual property is going through massive mutations in the hearts and minds of internet users. The laws, however, remain the same. You write it, you own it. It should not be copied, distributed, posted, etc. without your permission. No independent artist, however, can safeguard their work completely. We don’t have the time or the resources. But a Google Alert can help.

Cautionary tale:

I said earlier that I see the other Elaine Smiths appearing in my inbox with fair regularity. Usually, when I get my daily Google Alert, I scan it, checking them off in my mind.

There’s the pillow lady. There’s the dog lady. There’s the member of Scottish Parliament.

I check it out, check them off, and move on with my day. One day, however, a couple of years ago, I got my Alert email, and the internal dialogue went like this:

There’s the pillow lady. There’s the dog lady. There’s the member of Scottish Parliament. Huh. That sounds like my play. That is my play! That’s me!

A small theatre was advertising a reading of my play.

Now, I had submitted the play to them. They, however, had never approached me for my permission to do a public reading or even informed me it was happening. In the theatre world, this is a BIG no-no.

I would never have known without the Google Alert.

I give the theatre the benefit of the doubt. It may have been something that slipped through the cracks. Possibly, several people each thought somebody else had been in touch with me. I got in touch with them, and they were apologetic. They offered to cancel the reading. Since there are not usually any really good reasons not to have a reading, however, I told them they could proceed. No real harm done, except that I might have been able to be there if I’d known about it.

On the other hand, it could have been a production, and that would have been a big problem.

So, set up a Google Alert on your name and on your titles. Pay attention to it. Make sure that when your own work pops up in the middle of the snippets about therapy dogs and pillows and the Scottish Parliament that there’s a chance you’ll know it.

Tooting your own horn

You don’t need money to toot your own horn. You just need a horn.
—from a Citibank ad, of all things

A playwright is always his or her own first producer.

That’s an inconvenient truth.

It also applies to almost any kind of artist.

I’m extremely sorry to have to tell you this, but the chances of somebody knocking on your door to offer you a recording contract when they hear you singing in the shower are slim.

Your private journal, however steeped in literary eloquence, isn’t going to bring you a publisher if no one ever sees it.

You’ve got to get over all that early training about only speaking when you’re spoken to and acting like a lady and being modest and so forth.

Put your stuff out there.

Marketing is key. And it’s not just for Fortune 500 companies any longer.

These days, we all have access to a relatively inexpensive marketing tool that levels the playing field. It is easy–and important–to have your own website.

A lot of web hosts provide powerful tools to get you up and running quickly. In order to put your own stamp on your design, however, I highly recommend that you achieve a basic understanding of HTML (main markup language for web pages). Even if you use any or all of the various WYSIWYG (“What You See Is What You Get”) editors that allow for drag-and-drop design and which have come a long way since the early days, understanding the underlying codes is invaluable when there’s a problem.

Being able to edit the HTML can save you hours of confusion and frustration.

And this Tuesday’s Tip is a pointer to a great online tutorial, W3Schools, and a reminder about a nifty little program that makes editing that code much easier: Notepad++.

W3Schools is a terrific reference to all the major web design languages. It has great interactive online tutorials and lots of examples for beginners and a searchable reference for more knowledgeable users. I use it all the time.

And once W3Schools has helped me figure out what the code should look like on my webpage, I go to Notepad++ to help me implement the solution.

It’s possible to edit HTML in the regular old Notepad that comes with Windows. Notepad++, however–free to download and use–provides a number of additional features that will make you wonder how you ever survived without them.

It lets you edit multiple documents in the same window. Great for cutting and pasting useful bits of code from one page to another.
It allows color coding of syntax. Comments in one color, keywords in another, etc. So much easier to read the code that way.
It allows collapsing and expanding of sections of code. Just make the whole table disappear (in the code), while you work on the rest of the page, for example.
It allows search and replace across multiple documents. If you change the directory structure of your website, you can globally replace all references to any particular path.

There are other features I haven’t yet explored, but those alone have saved me hours of time.

We’d all like to spend all our time on creative endeavors. But if we want those endeavors noticed, we might have to toot our own horns.

All About the Email, Baby!

Today’s post is all about the email.

Because I’ve got some exciting news to announce.

Okay. Now I don’t want to mislead you. This is not the announcement. This is about making the announcement.

I want to reach as many people in my circle of friends, colleagues, interested parties, etc. as I can in as efficient a manner as possible. Makes sense, right? So, I need to send out an email. And, because everybody’s always talking about “branding,” I figure it will be best if the email could look a lot like this website.

And that meant learning to use one of those email list management services. And one thing has led to another, and I’m off to the post office to sign up for a post office box.

Why? you ask.

Well, see, there are these regulations that establish certain standards for bulk email. This is a good thing, right? Without it, I’d probably have several thousand emails a day instead of several hundred. I’m all for it.

Except for that one little part that requires a physical mailing address to be included in the email.

I’m sure that works out perfectly well for a big company, or any organization where the employees leave their homes and go to an office. But for those of us who are self-employed, it can get a little tricky.

My first email of this type will only be going to people I know, people with whom I have a relationship. But it’s going to include a “Forward to a Friend” link — because, hey, it really is good news, and there might be people who my friends and colleagues think should know about it. (Note to friends and colleagues: please, please, please forward the email to anybody you think might be interested!)

Being currently in an optimistic frame of mind — because I do have this good news, and that always makes things look rosier — I’m thinking that, possibly, people whom I have never met might see this email.

Do we really think it is a good idea for untold millions — no exaggeration — if you really think about it, you will realize that no matter how successful this email will be in getting out the news, there will remain millions who have been untold. Sigh. But do we think it is a good idea for untold millions to have my home address? Even if I thought that was a good idea, there’s a good chance my husband would not.

And so. . .a post office box!

Turns out, they are not that expensive, and — at least where I live — they are easily obtained. (But you’ve got to have more ID than you currently need to vote — and that’s saying something!)

If you’re one of those friends and colleagues of mine, watch your inboxes for the email! If you’re not, and you’re just dying of curiosity about this exciting news, you can sign up for my email alerts here.

Elaine Smith Writes